I AM a barbarian out of the sunless forest Where the trees continually growing spread a murmuring shadow of thunder Over the plains where the sunlight blooms in the golden grass. And I dream I shall see the sunlight slowly, inexorably eaten By those dark, slow-spreading impis that rise up out of the ground, Their bushy headdresses shaking as they crowd to the edge of the plains. Lovely are those bare hills where the slender-legged antelopes gather, Their horns against the horizon in the clear grey light of evening: And I stand at the edge of the forest and I see the red disc sinking, And a million blooms hang drooping and their colours fade from the fields! And when earth and sky are ashen, I turn back into the forest, Among the huge trunks walking, a Shadow lost by the sun; I am dark in the darkness, solitary, onward moving, Until I silently enter a tiny circle of firelight. There I sit with the Shadows that live in the gloom of the forest, Eating, gesticulating. Soon we lie down in deep silence But rolled in my blanket of darkness; I hold a bright patch of the sky with those hills and earth's delicate antlers. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PLAINT OF THE DISGUSTED BRITON IN THE STATES by GEORGE SANTAYANA SOLOMON TO SHEBA by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE POOL by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR LOUISA MAY ALCOTT by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: AUGUST by EDMUND SPENSER THE BOOK OF THE LETTER, SELECTION by ABRAHAM ABULAFIA |